3 Sites for transferring big video files

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By Jon Miles, Lagniappe Television

Part of building a web empire is paying for it. Part of paying for it is making money and being efficient. A critical thing to get good at is moving info and files around.

FTP confused me for years. I know it's 'file transfer protocol' versus "hyper-text transfer protocol." I understand that it's a great way to avoid a web browser while transferring big files, but I never was geeky enough to set up my own server.

Don't get me wrong, I use FTP all day. At one of my clients, I get stories from all over the world, pull them down, and encode them onto the server and they get broadcast. From a Final Cut Laptop to 140 million people. Pretty cool actually, getting a file in HD and seeing it on the air 30 minutes later.

But instead of setting up a server, or paying for an expensive traditional FTP service, we have opted for web based file transfer services.

Here are three:

YOU SEND IT

Yousendit.com is my favorite. It's a great service that my wife and I use all the time. It's free for the one file upload option. They have a client for PC and Mac you can sign up for HERE.

My wife records her readings to an Olympus Digital Recorder, and sends them to her clients from her Powerbook. I send video files to clients the same way. When I need to send multiple files, I just make an archive of them right in the finder like this:

TRANSFERBIGFILES.COM

Transfer big files claim to fame is files sizes up to 1 gigabyte. This works for most people and would work for me for 90% of my applications. If I had found this service before Yousendit.com I might as well be using this one.

SENDTHISFILE.COM

Another option is Sendthisfile.com. They are a totally paid service, but the basic plan is pretty cheap. While the functionality looks strong, I'm loath to sign up for any subscription or monthly costs unless I know I'm going to use it alot.





So it's clear that there are lots of easy ways to move your data around basically for free.

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The best book on podcasting and making professional videos - period

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By Jon Miles, Lagniappe Television



I invite you all, from beginners to professionals to buy Rich Harrington's excellent book, "Producing Video Podcasts: A Guide for Media Professionals." It is full of very helpful information, even for the working professional.

Rich and the crew at Rhed Pixel have made a living out of helping others, and this book is no exception. Written with his business partner Mark Weiser, this book is a virtual compendium of ways not to make mistakes. A great easy read, and a reference book to keep around always.

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Making crap video better with digital stills

The folks over at Washington University's GRAIL (Graphics and Imaging Laboratory) have done some very interesting work where they are taking low quality video and enhancing and repairing it with high quality digital stills. The implications for this type of work affecting the quality of work, and even the repair of existing work are astonishing.



Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene from pro on Vimeo.

Two books I recommend to LA bound Kendra

Here are two books I recommend to my friend Kendra. We had coffee at Caribou at 17th and L this morning, and while she is going to LA ostensibly to edit, during our conversation it became clear to me that she also has a future in producing. (Right Kendra?)

The first one is from Jane Hamsher. She produced, with her partner, "Natural Born Killers". Her book is very informative. Jane has since gone on to become at liberal blogger, she can be found here.



The second one is "Hello, He Lied" from Lynda Obst who currently has a prodco at Paramount. Lynda has produced little art house movies like "Sleepless in Seattle," "Contact," and "The Fisher King." I read this book once every couple of years. It's amazing. I'd also recommend you check out here prodco website as there are real links to resources for the LA bound filmmaker.

Rough Cut Lady

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As someone who spends alot of time in editing rooms, I am often exposed to many tv types (of both genders) who think they know what they are doing, but essentially have no effin clue how to make TV. While everyone needs to start somewhere, and learning is a life-long endeavor, and the knowledge gained from years of experience is not necessarily precious, there is a echelon of emotional children out there that one constantly encounters. Their machinations are entertaining at some level, but the phrase "narcissitic personality disorder" does often come to mind.

I recently worked with one of these specimens at a local network, and oh sweet jesus, if they googled themselves one more time I think I was going to barf.

Anyway, a friend from Discovery forwarded this to me some time back. It's made the rounds, but this little promo song captures this experience pretty darn well.

You Suck at Photoshop 2

You really suck at photoshop. Part 2

Amazon Fun

I've been exploring all the fun you can have with Amazon.com. As a content provider the business model for just doing programming for cable television, unless you have some pretty amazing scale, is pretty dismal. As a result, we have been building out our webstore, developing products and generally figuring out how to sell direct to the consumers.

Lord knows there are plenty of services out there to help with this. That is part of the problem. Figuring out which alchemy of products, websites, widgets and so forth is pretty astonishing.

As an aside, I'm getting back into my photography and have built my kit around my Nikon D70. It's a nice digital camera, but I'm already interested in the next level Nikon D300, but the chase for gear is always relentless.

My poor wife.

Anyway the point of my sharing this just me experimenting with the amazon contextual linking system for products. If you want, please click on the link and then go buy whatever you'd normally buy on amazon.

I might make 2 dollars.

Amazing Image Work

Awesome Image Technology - video powered by Metacafe

Koyaanisqatsi

Finally.

COOL TECH: Head Tracking for Wii Remote

The Wii RULES. Why would I post this? In essence, the merger of 3d gaming, fiction environments, and even disaster reporting all have applications with this type of technology.

COOL TECH: You Suck at Photoshop #1

Here is Episode 2, Episode 3 and Episode 4 are also on YouTube. They are hysterical, but I'm feeling too lazy to link to them for you so you'll just have to type.

More Charlie Brooker genius

The Magic of Montage.

Real Screen Assault 2008

I love watching folks at Real Screen. It's a dance of the peacocks and the temporarily crazy.

I ran into a friend who's an Exec at Discovery (the big channel) and he had just been accosted by an attendee swaddled in a foot cast.

Metaphors surround us.

She had clearly invaded his personal space and my friend, who is a gentleman and national Emmy nominee, felt like he had just been slimed ala Ghostbusters.

I'll freely admit that Real Screen can have a strange effect on you. Maybe it's all the pheromones tinged with hope and desperation floating around in the air but still...

No wonder all the cable execs walk around with their badges turned around.

The Absolute Truth About TV

Probably the funniest thing I've seen about TV. Happy Hunting.

WYSINWYG - Content Aware Image Resizing

Video Trace - Instant 3D Modeling from Video

Another reason you should never believe what you see from the folks at Australian Centre for Visual Technology.